ADJ
bright, brilliant, clever, excellent, good, great, marvellous valuable, worthwhile exciting, inspirational, interesting, stimulating constructive, positive creative, imaginative, innovative, original wacky big The latest big idea is to make women more interested in sport alternative Group counselling is used as an alternative idea to punishment fresh, new absurd, bad, mistaken, ridiculous crackpot, crazy, mad, outlandish, wild half-baked ambitious, big, grand He joined the company as an office assistant with big ideas grandiose basic The basic idea is that we all meet up in London
VERB + IDEA
have Do you have any ideas for a present for Lara? come up with, dream up, hit on/upon, produce, think up draw, get Her ideas are drawn mainly from Chinese art contribute, input moot, put forward promote, push (forward), sell They managed to push the idea of moving office through the committee welcome Most employees welcome the idea of a ban on smoking consider, entertain, flirt with, toy with I'm toying with the idea of packing in my job mull over, turn over He kept turning the idea of resigning over in his mind encourage, generate Brainstorming is a good way of generating ideas stifle a system of decision-making that stifles original ideas reject, scoff at, veto test, try out bounce around, bounce off sb, brainstorm, discuss, explore, talk about I met up with a designer to bounce a few ideas around. It's useful to have someone to bounce ideas off exchange, pool, share give sb What gave you the idea to go freelance? apply, implement, put into action/effect/practice The idea had long been mooted but nothing had been done to put it into practice transform, translate How could we translate the idea into business reality? steal She accused the company of stealing her idea impose She always tries to impose her own ideas on the rest of the team
IDEA + VERB
come into sb's head/mind, come to sb, flash across/into sb's mind/brain, hit sb, occur to sb, pop into sb's head, strike sb The idea for the invention came to him in the bath emerge, evolve, form, grow An idea began to form in his mind flow His ideas flowed faster than he could express them come from sb/sth, date back from/to sth, originate, start, stem from sth The idea for the Olympics originated with Pierre de Coubertin blossom, work (out) The idea has now blossomed into a successful mail-order business lead The idea eventually led to the invention of the telephone come to nothing
PREP
~ about I have an idea about how to tackle the problem ~ for We were asked to suggest ideas for improving efficiency ~ of She had the idea of advertising on the Internet
PHRASES
be open to ideas I don't know what to do, but I'm open to ideas the germ/glimmering of an idea The germ of his idea came from watching a bird make a nest have other ideas I wanted to take the week off, but my boss had other ideas it might be an idea It might be an idea to leave a note on the door for Mark
ADJ
clear, concrete, precise abstract theoretical basic, rough, vague He gave me a rough idea of what was wanted key, main The book introduces the key ideas of sociology dominant fixed, inflexible preconceived definite, firm, strong She has very definite ideas about what kind of a job she wants complex, difficult simplistic conventional traditional radical, revolutionary contradictory erroneous, false, wrong I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea about me funny, strange utopian romantic People have a romantic idea of the police force new-fangled outdated not the faintest/foggiest/remotest/slightest (informal) I haven't got the faintest idea what she meant. | artistic, economic, intellectual, moral, musical, philosophical, political, scientific | fascist, feminist, nationalist, socialist
VERB + IDEA
get They seem to have got the idea that we will be giving them a lift. You'll soon get the idea (= understand) espouse, have, hold He holds very different ideas to mine about discipline develop, form, shape the experiences that shaped her ideas express communicate, convey, get across, get over, present, put across The book puts across complex ideas in a way anyone can understand demonstrate, explain, expound, illustrate clarify, formalize, formulate, organize, structure Give careful thought to how to structure your ideas in the essay change, reconsider, reshape, revise They had to reconsider their ideas in the light of new evidence accept dismiss, reject harbour I hope he's not still harbouring ideas about asking me out be obsessed with He's obsessed with the idea of getting a motorbike relish I don't relish the idea of sharing an office with Tony
IDEA + VERB
amuse sb, appeal to sb, please sb The idea of going to his rescue amused her catch on, take hold Some students started wearing denim, and the idea caught on
PREP
~ about She's got some funny ideas about how to motivate staff ~ behind The idea behind the ceremony is to keep the gods happy to ensure a good crop ~ of Swimming in an icy river is not my idea of fun